by Lauren Wood
“Hell, it’s good to hear that you found someone Eve. It’s about damn time.”
I was about to protest the fact that I hadn’t found anyone when Carl walked up.
“You found someone Eve? Not here I hope.”
Chapter 11
Stan
I heard a soft knock on the door and truth was I had been waiting for it since we all went to our rooms earlier in the night. I wanted it to be Eve and I was pretty sure it was her, but about the time I got to the door, I heard voices on the other side of it in the hallway and I waited to open it. She was supposed to be alone for what I imagined us doing.
“Eve, what are you doing?’’
“Oh, um, I was going to ask Stan something. You know, about court tomorrow.”
There was a silence and some muffled words that I couldn’t hear.
“Don’t bother him Eve. He’s doing all of this for us and he isn’t charging us so much that we’ve got to sell the house. Let him do his job and don’t make it any harder than it has to be.”
“I know Carl. I wasn’t going to bother him. I was just going to ask him a question, so I don’t say or do the wrong thing tomorrow and mess it all up.”
“Ask him in the morning Eve. The man needs his sleep. He’s done enough.”
I wanted to ring my friend’s neck now. He didn’t know what he was doing and if he did, I knew that he would proceed anyways. It was a wakeup call in a way. No matter how it played out, it would never be an acceptable thing as far as Carl was concerned. That was his little sister and I needed to get my happy ass to bed because nothing was going to happen tonight.
Trying to go to sleep was not as easy as it was in the past for me. I could only think about what I was missing and what Eve had been at my door for. There was a possibility that she really was going to ask me something, but I hoped that it was to have another round of lovemaking. That woman had taken everything that I could give her and still had wanted more. She’d only passed out from the sheer number of times that she had come. I don’t know how many for sure, but I do know that it was one after another, after another.
The smile on my face faded because I realized what tomorrow was. It was going to be the day of reckoning. Tomorrow was the trial and though I had faith in good things happening, nothing was guaranteed. I knew that, and it worried me because I wish I knew that it was all going to work out. Paying someone off wasn’t enough and we were going in there with no real understanding already set up. That bothered me. Most of the time when I went into a court room, I already knew what was going to happen beforehand.
Finally, I got to sleep when it wasn’t that far from being time to get up. I usually didn’t have a problem sleeping, but then again, I felt far more invested into what happened with Eve.
When I woke up, it felt like I hadn’t slept a wink and my reflection wasn’t looking much better. I had bags under my eyes and even after I got out of the shower, I still looked like I was just coming in from a late night.
Eve mentioned something about it once when she saw me, and I told her that I was fine.
“You don’t look fine Stan. You kind of look like shit. Should I be worried? Are you worried?”
Her anxiety level was rising as she was saying the words and I had to tell her to calm down because she was making herself sick. She didn’t seem to understand that it was all going to be okay and I didn’t have the heart to lie to her. I should have. I didn’t lie, but I gave her the best outcome I could think of.
“I’m sure when we get in there, they will hear your side of it and it will all be understood. You don’t have a record and you don’t do things like that. I think this is all going to be okay.”
I didn’t quite believe that, but if she went in there with big eyes looking like she was guilty, that wasn’t going to help either. There was going to be a camera or two in there and they were waiting for the best shot, the one that looked like she was guilty just like they had reported. I had to make sure that they didn’t get that shot but saw a girl that was just trying to enjoy Vietnam and had accidentally went over the border by several miles.
That was going to be the tricky part. Trying to convince them that they didn’t know that they were over the line. There were signs that led up to it that stated where they were, and they had not seen them or ignored them. Eve and Callie said that they don’t remember them. It was another point of contention and I was going to have to figure out a way to explain it. I was still working on that one when we called a cab and set off towards the small courthouse that they had nearby. This was the day that I would find out what was going to happen. I had to get back to work soon, but I was invested in what was going on here.
Carl was about as nervous as his sister and he kept asking me some of the same questions that she had.
“It will be fine Carl. Its going to work out. I just know it is. You called me to help because you knew that I could. Now you’re just going to have to trust me.”
I was trying to put on the face of optimism, but it was hard. I was still going in rather blind and the lawyer that I was going to be working with was late when we got there. My translator was able to ask for a continuation for a few minutes until he got there, but they threatened to go on without him if he wasn’t there in ten minutes.
We had been here not, but twenty minutes and I had the judge pissed off with me, telling me that I expected special treatment because of where I was from. That couldn’t be further from the truth, but it didn’t matter because the lawyer came in, huffing and puffing like he had ran the whole way there.
“Glad to see you showed up.”
He tried to apologize and explain but the judge snapped at us to get started. We’d wasted enough of his time. I almost made it clear that ‘we’ were here on time, but local council was the one that was late. Everyone there knew it obviously, but it felt like something that needed to be reiterated as they looked on at us with a disgusted look like we were the ones wasting their time. We weren’t. It was their laws that made me higher Sal in the first place, nothing else and he was the one that had caused the delay.
Nonetheless, I apologized again for my co-council and I tried to make it up to him but laying out my opening statement rather quickly and concisely. He wanted to get this done and over with and I could play to that. I could be very efficient when I had to be.
“So, as you see Your Honor, we would ask that the charges be dropped. She’s already spent almost two weeks in a jail when she merely took the wrong road that led to your country. We would all like our passports back and permission from the courts to leave peacefully.”
It was all so reasonable, and I literally couldn’t see it going any other way. Until the judge finally spoke and shook his head.
“No, you will not be leaving today, and I will not be dropping charges. These are serious crimes, and someone is going to have to answer for them. If leniency is shown, more tourist will show up and try to do more of the same, claiming ignorance when they are caught. No, an example to others must be made.”
I groaned inwardly. That was the last thing that I wanted to hear.
Chapter 12
Eve
I couldn’t hear much of what was going on. The translator was talking non-stop, but it was more for Stan to hear than for me. I caught some of it, but not enough to really feel like I knew what was going on. Since it was my life in the balance, I was worried about what that meant for us. I knew that the judge was pissed, and it was because of the Cambodian lawyer that we’d hired running late.
Stan instructed me to kind of look forward and try not to let out too much. That was easier said then done because the whole time I was freaking out inside. My life was being decided around me and I couldn’t even understand what was being said. It was not a good feeling at all if I was perfectly honest with myself.
Callie seemed to be as upset and confused as I was. She was giving the cameras what they wanted, and I tried a couple of times to tell her to calm down some, but I don�
�t think that it was possible for her. It certainly didn’t seem that way.
“You have to chill out.”
“I can’t. What if they send us back to that place? I can’t go back.”
Her voice was rising, and I tried to shush her before she pulled some unwanted attention to us.
It was too late because the judge seemed to notice, and he was not happy. I still don’t know what happened exactly, but the next thing I know, they are hauling Callie out of the room and I can hear her getting upset and calling to me. It was a horrible feeling and I looked at Stan. He had a grave look on his face. She was going back. I just knew it.
Was I about to go back to that horrible place too? It was now a realer situation than it was before somehow, and I sat at the small table with Callie now gone from my side and for some reason, that made it all the scarier. For the first time through this whole ordeal, I felt alone, and I knew it was because Callie wasn’t by my side.
Another hour went by with several men and Stan arguing back and forth. It was not like any court room that I’d ever seen, though in truth I never had been to a real trial before. I’d seen them on television and I was pretty sure that it was not going the way it did there. Everyone here was shouting and several times the judge had to bang his gavel. The room would shut up and quiet down for a time, but it was never for long.
I was relieved to get a moment reprieve and I was able to get a little bit of time alone with Stan. Carl wasn’t allowed to come, but I told him I would meet him out front as soon as I talked to Stan. It started out as just a conversation.
“What happened to Callie?”
“She was sent out and put back in jail because she can’t control herself. What was going on with the two of you?”
“She’s freaking out Stan. What do you want me to say? She’s afraid that they are going to send her back.”
“Well they already did, and it made it look worse on her. You’re going to have to think about leaving her behind Eve. I think that you have a far better chance of getting on the plane and going home than she does. Didn’t you say that you were going to go back at the road, and she was the one that wanted to push on?”
I shook my head that it was, but then I started to realize where he was going with it and it started to make me nervous. He was trying to make Callie into a patsy and I didn’t like the idea of it at all. I wasn’t going to let him do that to my best friend.
“I’m not throwing her under the bus. You can forget it.”
“Then I don’t know if I can help you.”
We were at a stalemate and I knew then that I may be on my own. How could I go home and leave my best friend here in a jail to rot? There was no way that I could, and I resented Stan for any suggesting it.
“Both of us need to go home Stan because both of us are innocent. Let me tell my side of things. Don’t I get a chance here to do that, to defend myself?”
He said that I did, but he didn’t think that it would be a good idea. I didn’t know how it couldn’t be a good idea. I hadn’t done it. It was that simple so why did it need to be pretended that it was complicated. For some reason, I was convinced that I could just tell them what had happened and then everything would be okay.
“Let me go up there and tell them what happened in my own words. I’m sure they will then let us go. They must see that we didn’t mean any harm by any of this. I never wanted to come to Cambodia and I certainly wasn’t trying to hijack their culture. It was just a pretty vase and a wrong turn.”
“I know that, you know that, but they may not believe you and if they don’t, there could be hell to pay because of that. I want you to know that I’m not trying to scare you or anything like that, but at the end of the day, I need to make sure that everything works out okay. I told your brother I would get you out and get you home. I didn’t make the same promise to him about Callie.”
“You made the promise to me.”
“I said I would do my best.”
“Then do your best and get us out of this. I’m grateful for what you have done and what you’re doing, but I can’t leave her behind and I’m not going to use it to my advantage. You need to find another way.”
He didn’t seem to happy with my answer. I was bummed out that it had taken the turn that it had because there was a moment where I’d planned to jump his bones just in case I was sent to jail. But now I couldn’t even think about it much, not with Callie already locked back up and a judgement supposed to be rendered today. This was fast justice and with everything going on, I didn’t need the distraction.
The recess was over before I knew it and if I thought that everything was going fast before, I was wrong. Now it was at hyper speed.
Stan was called up, as well as the other lawyers to talk to the judge. It was a quick meeting with the microphone covered so no one else could hear what was going on. Stan came back with a smile and he told Carl that it was all going to be okay.
I didn’t say anything because of how the Cambodians felt about talking in their courtroom and I was just going to have to wait and see what he was talking about. Did this mean that he had gotten us off and that we could go home? It was too early to celebrate, but I let the seed of hope finally seat in my heart. I was ready to get home and get back to my boring old life.
Chapter 13
Stan
“I just don’t understand what happened Stan. I mean, what did the judge say when you guys were up there talking? I need to know. Where’s Callie? Are they letting her go?”
She had too many questions and I didn’t want to really answer any of them. It had gone like I had thought it would go the whole time. Callie was going to take the fall and had been sentenced to spend some time there. Up to three years it looked like and that was rather lenient.
Eve was getting out of it, but I had to pay a substantial amount to make it happen. It didn’t bother me though because I had came here knowing that it was going to be a possibility. If it meant that she got to go home, it was worth it. The money was not a problem at all.
“Callie is going to have to stay here for a little while Eve. I couldn’t save you both and I told you from the get go what I was going to do. You’re free and we can all go home tonight. I think your brother is getting us all a flight now.”
Eve just shook her head like she wasn’t going for it and I sighed to myself. While she’d said that she wouldn’t leave without her friend, a part of me had believed that she would anyways. I knew that she wasn’t going to want to, but I had no idea that she would when push comes to shove. What was she going to do, I mean really?
“I told you that I wasn’t leaving without her Stan and I meant it. What kind of friend would I be if I left her here all by herself?”
“Do you really think that she wants you in there with her?”’
“Is that possible?”
I shook my head that it wasn’t and didn’t want to find out if she was willing to go the whole way. I liked to think that she wasn’t prepared to do that, but I couldn’t say that I was one hundred percent sure. Eve was unlike anyone that I’d ever met before and I couldn’t help but admire her loyalty. Had anyone ever been that loyal to me before? I didn’t think so.
“No Eve, its not possible unless you did another crime. As your lawyer, I would highly recommend that you not do anything stupid. You don’t have permission to be here, so leaving Cambodia as soon as possible is your best bet. I don’t want to see you locked up like her.”
She wasn’t really listening to me and I knew that she was going to do what she thought was right. The idea made me worried and even when I had Carl try to talk some sense in her, there was nothing that he could say that would change her mind. He had foreseen this all happening before, but I’d hope that he was just talking to boost his sister.
“Carl, I can’t stay here any longer. I got to get back to work. I’ve been here several days now, and I can only push back my appointments and court proceedings for so long.”
Carl knew
what I was talking about and thanked me again for helping her. “I know that she is hard-headed, but she will come around. Hopefully we will be on our way home in a couple of days when she realizes there is nothing else we can do. When she exhausts all her options, then and only then will she be able to get on a plane and leave her.”
I thought it was honorable, but at the same time it was rather foolish. I had done what I set out to do. I should be happy. I won an international case that I shouldn’t have and when it was all said and done, I was proud of the way it all worked out. But there was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind with the idea of her staying. There was also regret that we hadn’t been able to find time to be together after his brother showed up. I had seen things going so much more differently in my head.
When I got on the plane later that evening, I hoped that everything was going to work out for them, but I was satisfied that I had done the best I could. I had gotten one out, guilty as sin in the court’s eyes and that was going to have to be enough. As the day wore on and I was flying home, I knew that it just wasn’t enough, no matter how much it should be.
I called Carl when I got off the plane and he asked me what was going on. I shouldn’t be calling. I did what I said I was going to do, but there was still a part of me that knew that I should have done more.
I should have felt good about it. I had done a good deed, but at the end of the day I felt rotten about it all. I had left a young woman wasting away in a Cambodian prison that I knew was innocent.
“Not much Carl. You’d said that you were going to go see Callie. I guess I was just wondering how she is holding up.”
“Not too good Stan. Eve said she doesn’t think she is going to make it too much longer and she said she has a plan. I can’t tell you how much it scares me to hear it. When Eve gets a plan… Well I guess we will have to see what happens.”
